Festival Patron receives highest honour in the UK

We are delighted to announce that The Baroness Valerie Amos, one of the Festival’s founding Patron was ‘appointed a member of the Order of the Garter, England’s oldest and most senior order of chivalry, becoming the first Black person in 700 years to receive the honour’. Val, as she is affectionately known to the Crew, is a Guyanese who has achieved quite a few ‘1^st’ in her working life and this award is well-deserved. Our co-founder and Director of the Festival has known Val for several decades and during her students days in Birmingham UK, she was a keen volunteer at community projects which Bob was running.  He remembers the attractive, young lady, quiet and dedicated, diligently undertaking voluntary work at The Handsworth Cultural Centre, a progressive, inclusive arts project, which engaged young people from the City’s marginalised communities.  

Her career pathway since her university days at Aston has been meteoric. Amongst her diverse working career, she was a former Labour cabinet minister, a United Nations under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, an adviser to the Mandela Government, the Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Leader of the House of Lords,  the UK’s High Commissioner to Australia, an Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN and is currently Master of University College, Oxford. In spite of her glowing achievements, Val has remained firmly rooted to the ground and everyone at the Festival sends her warmest congratulations and best wishes for a healthy, active and fulfilling life.